Yes, the Cops are Intentionally Murdering Black People
His name is Jacob Blake. He is 29 years old.
Add his name to the list of unarmed, innocent, Black people executed in public by police officers this year alone: Breonna Taylor. George Floyd. Elijah McClain.
Sunday August 23rd was supposed to be a normal day for Jacob Blake and his three children. Blake comes from a long line of impressive Americans, including activists, ministers and intellectuals of all stripes. Friends and family talk about him as an incredibly loving man, who centers his life and energy around his three children and his broader family.
When Blake was shot seven times in the back, he was attempting to climb into a car containing his three children.
It’s chilling. And so common in this country that it’s deeply dishonest to speak about this as anything other than the way policing is done.
The officers who opened fire on an innocent man, leaving him paralyzed, weren’t arrested. They were placed in administrative leave.
And for those who have missed the memo: this is all completely standard in a country where 99% of police officers who murder civilians will go on to face no legal action whatsoever. Critics of racializing this conversation will point out that white people are murdered by police officers too, but the 32% of police deaths being linked to Black people is fundamentally jarring when only 12% of the populace is Black. Black people are also 15% more likely to be unarmed when murdered- as if there were ever a reason to murder someone who poses no potential threat.
“The officers who opened fire on an innocent man, leaving him paralyzed, weren’t arrested. They were placed in administrative leave. ”
For those who insist on taking race OUT of the homicidal cop equation, the numbers are bad enough. In 2020 alone, 661 people have already been murdered by American police officers- and globally speaking? That isn’t even a little bit normal. In 2018, the U.K. police force killed three people. The Australian police force killed eight people. That same year? The American cops killed over a thousand people.
As Black Lives Matters organizers call out for the police to be defunded- and for those who brutalize civilians to be held accountable- the movement has gained more traction in the first two weeks of the summer than it had in the years preceding. Americans are waking up, suddenly, to the jarring cruelty implicit to Police violence- particularly against Black people. This country is waking up to the fact that though individual tragedies have individual stories, each is a detail in the broader tragedy that is Police brutality in America.
After all, we know that the American police force is capable of non violently escalating. As Kenosha protestors demonstrated for Jacob Blake- and all the other innocent Black men gunned down by policemen- a seventeen year old walked boldly into the protests carrying an assault rifle and began shooting. He murdered two, injured two, and was taken into custody without the least amount of aggression on the part of the police officers. Shortly after, he was praised by the President. Racists online raised massive amounts of money in his defense.
And most importantly, there were absolutely no concerns for his physical safety. Jacob Blake, meanwhile, a father, a leader, and an innocent young man will likely be paralyzed for the rest of his life.
Research by the FBI documents to the extent that police squads across the country have been infiltrated by white supremacist groups. But given the racially skewed reality of who is murdered and who is taken alive, can that really come as a shock?
When non violent protestors are massacred and gassed for protesting the murders of Black people, but the Police themselves walk away from their own murder victims without consequence, what does this say about whose lives are valued in this country?
What is becoming more loudly talked about is what we have always known: is that the Police in America have Black blood on their hands. And until America removes the badges of these murderers, there will be no peace in this country- not in her streets, not in her soul.
